Editors' Corner

Rebecca Aguilar, a Dallas tv reporter who was awarded the Broadcast Journalist of the Year honors from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists* this past month, was suspended for the above interview. According to the Dallas Morning News, a 70-year-old businessman shot and killed an intruder who had broken into his West Dallas salvage yard — where he also lives. It was the second time in three weeks the owner killed an intruder.
Aguilar found the man at a department store; apparently he told her he was going there. In the interview, she asks him, "are you a trigger happy kind of person? Is that what you wanted to do? Shoot to kill?" The man sounds like he breaks down.
The interview prompted an angry response. I think she did cross the line. She planted herself inside the man's car so he couldn't even close it if he wanted to. But I believe a reprimand would have been more appropriate. Sometimes the excitement of getting an interview clouds journalists' judgement. But we don't leave our humanity at the door. And where were her editors?
- an added note. Aguilar responded to the criticism here, and NAHJ responded with a letter demanding she be reinstated.
*As a former NAHJ member (I didn't quit because of principles, I left because I'm lazy and don't particularly like joining groups) I do have to ask, would they have been so easy to dismiss the inappropriate part of Aguilar's interview, if the reporter was white and male, and the driver was a 70-year-old Latina who was protecting her property?
A standard is a standard regardless of the racial or ethnic component.